Gristina accepts a plea deal

Terms grant her 6 months' prison time

A prostitution case that evolved into a sensational tale of a suburban mother moonlighting as a high-end Manhattan madam ended Tuesday with a guilty plea sparing her further jail time but not without some parting shots by prosecutors and the judge suggesting the hype was of her own making. Assistant District Attorney Charles ...

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Posted Sep. 26, 2012 at 2:00 AM

Posted Sep. 26, 2012 at 2:00 AM

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A prostitution case that evolved into a sensational tale of a suburban mother moonlighting as a high-end Manhattan madam ended Tuesday with a guilty plea sparing her further jail time but not without some parting shots by prosecutors and the judge suggesting the hype was of her own making.

Assistant District Attorney Charles Linehan accused Anna Gristina of making empty boasts picked up by surveillance before her arrest that she had connections in the FBI, New York Police Department and other law enforcement agencies who would tip her off when needed.

"We have no evidence to support any of these claims," Linehan said in state court, according to the Associated Press. "(Gristina) ran a brothel for many years — that is all."

Under the terms of the deal, Gristina will be sentenced to six months in prison, which will essentially amount to time served, the New York Post said. Gristina and her husband, Kelvin Gorr, live with her four children in Monroe.

"Your honor, I would gratefully like to accept the plea," Gristina said in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday.

Gristina would have faced a maximum of seven years in prison if she had been convicted at a trial that was scheduled for next month. A plea would deprive New York of what promised to be a trial offering salacious details and a rare glimpse into what the Manhattan district attorney says was a multimillion dollar prostitution ring catering to some of the richest men in the world.

Judge Juan Merchan also scolded Gristina for drawing needless attention to herself, including by bringing her young son Nicholas to court on Tuesday amid a throng of news cameras, AP reported. "I can't see the benefit of exposing him to this," he said.

The 45-year-old native of Scotland pleaded guilty to a single count of promoting prostitution, which stemmed from a July 2011 tryst that authorities say she arranged involving two women and an undercover officer posing as a client named Anthony.

The judge warned that a bigger problem for Gristina — a legal U.S. resident from the Scottish Highlands — is that she could be deported as a result of the conviction.

Sentencing was set for Nov. 20.

Gristina's lawyers had painted a picture of benign domesticity: They said she lived on a 12-acre property in Monroe, about 50 miles north of New York City, and rescued animals and helped abandoned pet pigs find new homes. She also had said she was merely starting a dating service.

But prosecutors alleged she had secretly made millions of dollars during about 15 years of booking prostitutes for well-heeled clients. They said many of the trysts occurred at an apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Her lawyer, Norman Pattis, had sought to get the case dismissed by arguing that the district attorney's office "vindictively prosecuted" her because she wouldn't cooperate during an illegal interrogation.

In court papers, Gristina accused detectives of shrugging off her requests for a lawyer and telling her they'd let her go if she gave them information about five men not named in her filings but described as a financier, an international banker and a member of a politically connected family, among others.

The district attorney's office countered in its own papers that Gristina "has not produced a shred of evidence of actual vindictiveness."